Sheet-individualizing device.



C. D. CURRY SHEET INDIVIDUALIZING DEVICE.

APPLICATION FILED MAYZY. 1914.

1,197,711. PatentedSept. 12,191&

4 SHEETS-SHEET 1.

C. D. CURRY.

SHEET INDIVIDUALIZING DEVICE.

APPLICATION FILED MAYZY. I914.

1,197,71 1. PatentedSept. 12, 1916;

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Patented Sept. 12, 1916.

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C. D. CURRY.

SHEET INDIVIDUALIZING DEVICE.

APPLICATION FILED MAY27. 19H.

Patented Sept. 12, 1916.

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TED STATES PATENT ornron.

CLAUD D. CURRY, OF MASSILLON, OHIO, ASSIGNOR OF TWO-THIRDS T0 AMERICAN ASSEMBLING MACHINE COMPANY, A CORPORATION OF DELAWARE.

SHEET-INDIVIDUALIZING DEVICE.

Specification of Letters Patent. Patented Sept 12, 1916 Application filed May 27, 1914. SerialLNo. 841,239.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, CLAUD D. CURRY, a citizen of the United States, anda resident of Massillon, in the county of Stark and State of Ohio, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Sheet-Individualizing Devices, of which the following is a specification.

The present invention relates to sheetindividualizing devices and has more particularly reference to means for separating and feeding heavy folded signatures such as newspaper supplements which are to be inserted within another newspaper section.

The main object of the invention is to separate the sheets or signatures from a pile of superimposed signatures with a great degree of accuracy and to feed the same at a high speed out of the hopper or supportcontaining the sheets or signatures. 7

.With these and other objects in view, one feature of the invention consists of a support for a pile of superimposed signatures, means for buckling the leading end of the lowermost signature, means for clownwardly deflecting said lower end, and means for bodily. withdrawing the sheet from the said support. In the preferred form the sheet is withdrawn in the reverse direction, that is to say, with its leading edge reversed from the position which it occupied in the hopper or support. Preferably the buckling member is in the formiof a sheet separating device,rin this instance provided with needles which project upwardly and rearwardly,

and means are provided whereby this member is given a reciprocating motion in a path substantially parallel to the sheet support, the motion being in a rearward direction when entering the pile to engage a sheet, there being further means for moving the said sheet separating member downwardly away from the support so as to deflect the leading end of the lowermost signature downward into a position where it may be acted upon by other devices for feeding ofl the sheet or signature thus deflected.

Other features of construction, combination of parts and arrangement of elements will appear as the specification proceeds.

In the accompanying drawings the invention is embodied in a concrete and preferred form but changes may of course be made without departing from the legitimate and intended scope of the inventiongas defined by the appended claims.

In the said drawings: Figure 1 is an end view of a feeding hopper embodying the invention, looking' in the direction of the arrow 1 of Fig. 2. Fig. 2 is a vertical sectional view on the line 22 of Fig. 1. Fig. 3 is a vertical sectional view on the *line 33 of Fig. 4. Fig. 4 is a general plan view of the structure shown in the other figures, with parts omitted and broken away for the sake of clearness of illustration.

Similar characters of reference indicate corresponding parts in the several views.

indicates a hopper of any suitable construction comprising upright but inclined side walls 51 and having a supporting member 52 at its lower end which is adapted to extend in under the rear portion of a pile of superimposed signatures 53 adapted to be placed in said hopper. The member 52 which supports the rear portion of the signatures or sheets terminates in a downwardly curved projection 54. Separated from this projection 54 so as to leave an opening therebetween are the front pile-supporting means or members 14: which are mounted by means of arms 55 on the rockshaft 13, which rockshaft is actuated through the arms 15 by means of the cam 28 carried by the cam shaft 10..

Mounted in the guides 56 is a rear pileengaging member 57 which receives motion from the cam 58 mounted on the shaft 59, said motion being imparted by means of the link 17 and levers 18 mounted on the shaft19.

' Mounted on the shaft 10 are two rocker arms 26 provided at their free ends with cam rollers 22 which extend in opposite directions to enter thecam grooves 100 formed in the rotatable members 101 carried on the shaft 5. It will be noted from Fi 1 that these rotatable members 101 are spaced from each other and that the rocker arms 26 eX- tend in between said rotatable members, the bifurcated ends 26 which are mounted on the shaft 10 indicating the relative location with respect to the rotatable members 101. Each rocker arm 26 is provided at its free ends with rollers 22 extending in opposite directions transversely of the machine so that one roller 22 of each rocker arm engages with the cam grooves 100 in the outer rotatable members 101, while the other roller 22 of each rocker arm engages in the cam grooves 100 of the middle rotatable member 101, which for this purpose is double-faced, having a cam groove in each side.

Formed upon the free ends of the rocker arms 26 are guides 24 in which are mounted the reciprocating sheet separating or buckling member 23, here taking the form of a needle box having upwardly and rearwardly inclined needles 62. This sheet separating or buckling member is given a reciprocating motion by any suitable means, in the present instance by means of the cam 27 on the shaft 10, with which engages the rollers 63 mounted on the arm 25 conveniently extending through the rocker arm 26 and connected to a bell crank 64 pivoted at 65 in the rocker arm 26, and connected by means of a link 66 to the needle box 23.

The rotatable members 101 are provided with segmental feeding surfaces 67 which are adapted to engage with friction rollers 68 arranged at intervals adjacent to the periphery of the said rotatable members at one side of the device. The forward end 69 of the friction surfaces 67 constitute a means for reversing the leading end of the sheet, as will appear in due course. Preferably there are two of these segmental friction surfaces 67 with reversing means 69, so that two sheets or signatures are fed out of the hopper or support to each revolution of the shaft 5.

Mounted at either end of the hopper 50 are two rockshafts l and 2, each of which carries a downwardly projecting arm 3 which are adapted to enter below the pile and to hold the sheet overlying the lowermost sheet to prevent it from being displaced while the lowermost sheet is being bodily removed from the hopper or support 50. These two rockshafts 1 and 2 are connected with a cross connection 4 and the rockshaft 2 receives motion from the cam 11 on the shaft 10 by means of the connection 12 and cam roller 25.

Mounted adjacent to the front wall of the hopper 50 are the chains 70 carried on the sprockets 20, the lower one of which is mounted on a shaft 21 to which motion is intermittently imparted by means of the connection 29 engaging the cam 71 by means of the roll 72, and serving to operate a pawl 73 which engages a ratchet 74 on the shaft 21. The friction rollers 68, of which there are shown in the present instance four, are preferably constructed as follows: Each friction roller 68 is mounted in an arm 200 which is pivoted on the shaft 201 and is normally urged toward the friction surface 67 by means of the spring 7 acting against the member 6. The friction rollers 68 are, however, prevented from passing below the pitch line of the friction surfaces 67 by reason of the stop 206. Engaging with the gear 209 on the shaft 5 is a pinion 202, shown in dotted lines in Fig. 1. This pinion is mounted on the shaft 201 which has another pinion 32 which meshes with an intermediate pinion 30 mounted on the arm 200, which in turn engages the pinion 31 connected to the roller 68. It will be understood that this construction permits of variations in thickness of the signature or newspaper section while at the same time insuring sufiicient engagement of the roller 68 with the paper to cause it to travel in the proper manner. It will further be observed that the arm 200 may turn about its center 201 to accommodate sections of varying thickness, and that the motion imparted by the gear 9 will be imparted to said roller 68 irrespective of its position with respect to the surface 67.

It will be noted that the reversing member 69 is in the form of a reduced portion of the friction surface 67, as best seen in Fig. 3, and that it extends below the pitch line of the said friction surface 67. The object of this is to, prevent the friction rollers 68 from interfering with the proper discharge of the paper from engagement between the friction surfaces 67 and the last roller 68. It will be noted that adjacent to the last roller 68, as shown more particularly in Fig. 2, there is located a stripper finger 203 which extends inside the pitch line of the friction surfaces 67 The fact that the friction roller 68 does not frictionally hold the leading edge of the paper against another friction surface permits the said stripper finger 203 to deflect the leading edge of the section and thus prevent it from following the rotation of the said friction surface 67 Adj acent to the guide 203 is another guide 204 which together form a throat through which the paper sections are delivered. It will be observed that the guide 204 is a continuation of a circumferential guide 205 which extends parallel to the periphery of the friction surfaces 67 and together with the friction roller 68 serves to hold the paper in position against said friction surfaces 67 The operation of the device is as follows: The signature or sheets are placed in the hopper 50 with their folded edges toward the front, as indicated in Fig. 2, this being what may be termed the leading edge of the signature. In Fig. 3 the rocker arm 26 is almost at its highest point with respect to the hopper 50. Substantially at this time the needle box 23 is moved rearwardly, thereby causing the needles to enter the lowermost signature, this action causing the leading end of the signature to be buckled between the curved projection 54 and the needle box 23. The front pile supporting means 14 are lowered substantially at the moment the needle box 23 commences to buckle the paper away from said front pile supporting means. The rear pile engaging buckling. The rocker arm 26 now moves downward carrying with it the needle box 23, thereby deflecting the leading end of the signature downward through the opening between the rear pile supporting means and the front pile supporting means. Substantially at this moment the arms 3 enter in between the lowermost signature and the one just overlying it, the object of which is to prevent the overlying signature from being displaced when the lowermost signature is being bodily removed. The reversing means 69 on the rotatable member 101 now advance and engage the downwardly deflected leading end of the signature and reverse the leading end thereof and places it adjacent to the roller 68. It will be noted that the reversing means 69 are locatedbelow the pitch line of the friction surface 67. When the friction surface 67 now reaches the first roller 68 it will grip the signature at a point in rear of the leading end thereof and the signature is removed bodily and reversely from the hopper 50, the arms 3, as before described, preventing the overlying signature from becoming displaced. The front pile supporting means 14 meanwhile have moved upward again to support the pile, the arms 3 presently move outward away from the pile, and the rear pile engaging means 57 are moved back, thus permitting the pile to settle. The settling of the pile will be facilitated by the chains 70 which serve to feed the papers downward into the bottom of the hopper. lVhen the paper reaches the guide 203 it is deflected into the throat formed between guides 203 and 204.

What is claimed, is:

1. A sheet individualizing device comprising: a support for a pile of superimposed sheets, means for buckling the leading edge of the lowermost sheet and for downwardly deflecting the buckled end of the sheet, movable means to act against the rear edge of the pile during the buckling movement, and means for bodily withdrawing said sheet from the support and superimposed pile.

2. A sheet individualizing device comprising: means for supporting the rear portion of a pile of superimposed sheets, front pile supporting means. means for buckling the leading edge of the lowermost sheet away from the front pile supporting means and for uninterruptedly and downwardly deflecting the buckled end of the sheet, means for withdrawing the front pile supporting means from engagement with the pile, and means engaging the deflected end for bodily withdrawing said sheet from the rear supporting means and superimposed pile.

3. A sheet individualizing device comprising: means for supporting the rear portion of a pile of superimposed sheets, front pile-supporting means, means for buckling the leading edge of the lowermost sheet away from the front pile supporting means and for downwardly deflecting the buckled end of the sheet, movable means acting against the rear edge of the pile during the buckling movement, means for withdrawing the front pile-supporting means from engagement with the pile, and means for bodily withdrawing said sheet from the rear supporting means and superimposed ile. p 4:. A sheet individualizing device comprising: a support for a pile of superimposed sheets, means for buckling the leading edge of the lowermost sheet, movable means operated to act against the'rear edge of the pile during the buckling movement, means for operating said buckling means in a downwardly'direction after the sheet has been buckled, thereby downwardly deflecting the buckled end, means for bodily withdrawing said sheet from the support and superimposed pile, and means engaging the next overlying sheet during the bodily withdrawal of the lowermost sheet to prevent the latter from displacing the said next overlying sheet.

5. A sheet individualizing device comprising: means for supporting the rear portion of a pile of superimposed sheets, front pile supporting means, means for buckling the leading edge of the lowermost sheet away from the front pile supporting means and for uninterruptedly and downwardly deflecting the buckled end, means for withdrawing the front pile supporting means from engagement with the pile, means engaging the deflected end for bodily withdrawing said sheet from the rear supporting means and superimposed pile, and means engaging the neXt overlying sheet during the bodily withdrawal of the lowermost sheet to prevent the latter from displacing the said next overlying sheet.

6. A sheet individualizing device comprising: means for supporting the rear portion of a pile of superimposed sheets, front pile supporting means, means for buckling the leading edge of the lowermost sheet away from the front pile supporting means, means acting against the rear edge of the pile during the buckling movement, means for withdrawing the front pile supporting means from engagement with the pile, means for actuating the buckling means to, uninterruptedly after buckling, downwardly deflect the buckled end of the sheet, means engag g the deflected end f r bodily withdrawing said sheet from the rear supporting means and superimposed pile, and means engaging the next overlying sheet during the bodily withdrawal of the lowermost sheet to prevent the latter from displacing the said next overlying sheet.

7. A sheet individualizing device comprising: a support for a pile of superimposed sheets, means for buckling the leading edge of the lowermost sheet, a rear edge pile engaging member, means for holding said member against the rear edge of the pile during the buckling movement and away from the pile between the buckling movements, means for actuating the buckling means to downwardly deflect the buckled end, and means for bodily withdrawing said sheet from the support and superimposed p1le.

8. A sheet individualizing device comprising: a support for a pile of superimposed sheets, means for buckling the leading edge of the lowermost sheet, a rear edge pile engaging member, means for holding said member against the rear edge of the pile during the buckling movement and away from the pile between the buckling movements, means for actuating the buckling means to downwardly deflect the buckled end, means for bodily withdrawing said sheet from the support and superimposed pile, and means for feeding the pile clownward toward the support.

9. A sheet individualizing device comprising: a support for a pile of superimposed sheets, a sheet separating member below said support and adjacent to the leading edge of the pile of sheets, means for moving the separating member from a point near the leading edge of the pile in the direction of the rear of the pile when engaging the latter and then in a downward direction to effect the separation of a sheet from the pile, and means for bodily withdrawing the sheet from the support.

10. A sheet individualizing device comprising: a supporting member extending in under the rear portion of apile of superimposed sheets and terminating in a downwardly curved projection, a front pile supporting means spaced from said supporting member so as to leave an opening therebetween, buckling means having a movement toward said projection for engaging the leading edge of the lowermost sheet of the pile to separate the same from the remainder of the pile by deflecting it through the opening aforesaid, and means for bodily withdrawing said lowermost sheet over said curved projection with its leading edge reversed.

11. A sheet individualizing device comprising: a support for a pile of superimposed sheets, means for buckling the leading edge of the lowermost sheet and for downw'ardly deflecting the same, means for reversing the leading edge of said sheet, and feeding means for withdrawing the sheet bodily and reversely from said support with its leading edge reversed.

12. A sheet individualizing device comprising: a support for a pile of superimposed sheets, means for buckling the leading edge of the lowermost sheet, means for causing the buckled end to be downwardly deflected, sheet feeding means for bodily and reversely withdrawing the lowermost sheet from the support located below said support, and means for engaging the downwardly deflected leading end to reverse the same and to place the leading edge of the sheet to the feeding means aforesaid.

13. A sheet path comprising: opposing friction members for forwarding a sheet, means lying below the frictional surface of certain of said members for presenting a sheet between said fricion members so that the latter will engage the sheet in rear of its leading edge to feed the same, and stripper means extending below the frictional surface of said certain members to coact therewith for engaging with the free leading edge to deflect said sheet out of said sheet path.

1A. The combination of a rotatable friction surface, a plurality of feed rollers located adjacent to the path of said friction surface, means for permitting said friction rollers to be moved away from said friction surface in accordance with the thickness of the paper, means for preventing said friction rollers from extending below the pitch circumference of said friction surface, and means for driving said friction rollers irrespective of their position with respect to the friction surface aforesaid.

15. A sheet individualizing device comprising: a support for a pile of superimposed sheets, means for buckling the leading edge of the lowermost sheet, means for bodily withdrawing said buckled sheet from the support and superimposed pile, and means for feeding the pile downward toward the support.

16. A sheet path comprising: a rotatable friction surface and friction rollers coacting therewith for forwarding the sheet, means extending from said friction surface and lying below the circumferential pitch of said surface and rollers so that the latter will engage the sheet only at a point in the rear of the leading edge and said leading edge will lie opposing said presenting means.

17. A sheet path comprising: a rotatable friction surface and friction rollers coacting therewith for forwarding the sheet, means extending from said friction surface and lying below the circumferential pitch of said surface for engaging the leading edge of a sheet and presenting the same between in the rear of the leading edge and said leading edge will lie opposing said presenting means, and stripping means arranged to lie inside the circumferential pitch of said fric tion surface and to coact with the same for engaging the free leading edge to deflect.

the sheet out of said sheet path.

18. A sheet path comprising: a plurality of rotatable friction surfaces, friction rollers coacting with said surfaces for forwarding the sheet, means extending from each frictional surface and lying below the circumferential pitch of said surface for engaging the leading edge of a sheet and presenting the same between the frictional surface and rollers so that the latter will engage the Copies of this patent may be obtained for sheet at a point in the rear of the leading edge of the sheet.

19. A sheet individualizing device comprising: a support for a pile of superimposed sheets, means for buckling the leading edge of the lowermost sheet, means for moving said buckling means downwardly for deflecting the buckled end of the sheet, and means for engaging said deflected end of the sheet and bodily withdrawing the same from the support and superimposed pile.

Signed at Massiilon, in the county of Stark and State of Ohio, this 22nd day of May A. D. 1914. r OLAUD D. CURRY. Witnesses: I

J. K. MERWIN, A. PHELAN.

five cents each, by addressing the fGommissioner of Patents, Washington, Bill. 7 

